[Bestplus] question re: pre- and post-testing on the same computer

[Schwerdtfeger, Jane]

Hi, everyone--

The question about if a program needs to use the same computer to pre- and
post-test a student has come up twice now, so I wanted to give you a
response in case you were asked about it too.  Along the same lines, the
question arose about if it would be good to pre- and post-test on the same
computer so that you can be assured that the test questions will vary
between pre-and post-testing for that student.  The answer is no, you don't
have to pre- and post-test the student using the same computer.  Also, the
test questions vary each time the test is given on all computers, so
students can be pre-tested on one computer and post-tested on another
computer, and get different test questions each time.  

A related question also was if you do post-test a student on a different
computer, how does that work with class lists in the scores database system
on the hard drive of the computer.   Unless a computer has all the student's
names for the whole program on every computer, they won't get matched up.
The program would have to create (and should anyway) a centrally located
place where they are going to keep track of all the scores of students at
the program (and back it up!).  Then the pre- and post- scores would be get
matched up there when all the scores are downloaded into it from the
separate computers.  Does that make sense?  Does a program who has been a
pilot site want to jump in here and explain how they have done it?

Hope this helps--I'll add it to the FAQ list of questions.

Jane